She patted his hand, which was dappled by the sun shining through the leaves above.“Say no more.I understand.”
“What do you understand?”he asked, lifting her chin with the back of his hand.
“Well.”She drew the word out and shifted so her palm rested on his chest.“The relationship with your father might be normal, but no one calls their mom ‘Mother’ except the very rich and the estranged.Oh, or when you’re annoyed with her.”
Lizette leaned away to look him in the face.“Am I right?”
“That’s about it, but please don’t ask me to talk about her.Maybe some other time.”
“Mmmm.”
“What does that mean?”he asked.
“When someone says maybe some other time, it generally means not in this lifetime if I can help it.”
He laughed and pulled her closer.“We just have different views on life and how to live it.”
“I understand and promise to leave that subject alone unless you bring it up again.”
“I appreciate that.Better to talk about us.”He tipped his head back against the bark.“Although I will confess that where you’re concerned, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
A pat to the arm accompanied her words.“That’s all right because the same applies to me.Wintertime has been my primary focus for the past few years.Yes, I’ve dated, but everything comes back to this business and serving the kids.”
“Something tells me you’ve always been laser-focused.”
“That’s so true.”She leaned forward and hugged her legs.“Since I was a child.”
The wind rose, and he gently laid one of the twists behind her ear as she said, “What about you?What brought you to me?Because the kind of attention you’ve given my proposal tells me you have the same kind of drive and determination.”
He didn’t want to badmouth Christy, so he said, “I had a run of bad luck.Should have been paying more attention to my financial situation, but didn’t.When it came to crunch time, I was on the losing end.Can’t blame anyone but myself.”
Curiosity filled her gaze, but somehow, he knew she wouldn’t ask more questions.
“Sometimes, life takes us on a downward spiral to lift us again, especially when we need to let go of certain things that aren’t meant for us.”
He closed his eyes, allowed his thoughts to settle, then kissed her cheek.“I like the way you reason.That kinda sounds like my situation.”
But he wasn’t exactly convinced.He’d build again, but even now he wondered why he hadn’t seen what should have been obvious.
“Seems to me you’re hard on yourself, but—”
“I can’t help it.Mother would agree I’ve been a fool.”
The laughter of a child pulled his attention, and he frowned.The flash of red clothing and the familiar shape of the little girl as she ran in a zig-zag pattern made him squint.Natanya.
“What is it?”Lizette asked, staring in the same direction.
He pointed.“That looks like Natanya.”
Lizette squinted, then confirmed, “It is.”
The girl ran to Christy, who held her by one hand, and a man gripped the other.Then he swung Natanya into his arms and kissed her forehead.
Natanya squealed and hugged him around the neck.
As they approached, Shomari lowered his head and focused on the couple.He wasn’t jealous, but was curious about how long Christy had been seeing this man since they recently split up.Or, at least, he was done once he realized he’d been fooled.
He looked at the guy again, and a cold hand squeezed his heart and stopped the air from getting to his lungs.The lunch he’d just consumed threatened to come back up, but he swallowed hard and forced himself to take slow, even breaths.
